Benjamin Knack
Benjamin Knack was a contestant on Season 7 and Season 17 of Hell's Kitchen. On season 7, he ranked in 3rd place, and on season 17, he was the runner-up. Personality Benjamin became the main antagonist of season 7 shortly after his transfer to the red team. When transfered, he became condescending and contemptuous towards his female teammates, especially Siobhan, and tried to steal everybody's job. On season 17, he appeared to have improved his attitude, and got along with the majority of his teammates except for Robyn, who he occasionally snapped at when frustrated. Season 7 Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 Episode 8 Episode 9 Before dinner service, each team was asked to create their own menus. During the creation of the menu, Benjamin insulted more than half of the world population by saying that rice is poor food. This was one of the most pretentious quote in the history of Hell's Kitchen. Episode 10 Episode 11 Episode 12 During dinner service, Ramsay told Sous Chef Scott to take his place for a moment while he's gone. Benjamin unwisely decided it would be a good idea to be a team leader at that time. He was caught by an angry Sous Chef Scott, who yelled at Benjamin to never try to take his place at the pass again. Episode 13 Episode 14 Episode 15 Season 17 Episode 1 During the Signature Dish Challenge, Benjamin scored a perfect 5 on salmon. This proved to be the ultimate difference, as he went against Robyn, whose dish was the worst of them all. Episode 2 Benjamin committed no significant errors during an easy dinner service victory for the blue team. Episode 3 The blue team won the team challenge. Benjamin committed no significant errors during dinner service and the blue team won its second in a row handily. Episode 4 This was the second challenge where Benjamin scored a perfect 5; however, his team lost this challenge. During dinner service, Benjamin served raw duck and got the blue team thrown out for raw Wellington. The entire team chose to nominate Josh, who wanted him nominated instead. During the elimination process, Benjamin told Ramsay that the entire team viewed Josh as the weak link and the others all raised their hands in agreement. Josh was swapped to the red team, in exchange for Robyn. Episode 5 During service Ramsay admonished him for putting oil in a nonstick pan to cook scallops. Benjamin also constantly responded to Ramsay, "Oui, chef!" All his teammates were annoyed, but Ramsay apparently did not mind. No elimination occurred after service as both teams were declared winners. Episode 6 During the International Pizza Challenge, Benjamin and Giovanni were each tasked with preparing a pizza that represented France. Ramsay announced that he was only tasting one of the two, and the blue team chose Gio's without noticing that it was burnt on the bottom, costing them the challenge. During dinner service, he had trouble communicating with Robyn on the appetizer station. The blue team lost service, but he was not nominated. Episode 7 Benjamin was exempted from Cook For Your Life Challenge along with Van. Episode 8 During the Cave Meat Challenge, Benjamin overcooked his elk, but Robyn bailed him out to secure the challenge victory for the blue team. The blue team had what is considered the best non-black jacket dinner service in Hell's Kitchen history. Episode 9 During the Fishing Challenge, he and Dana both scored a point on Arctic char. The blue team won the challenge and went to Caesar's Palace in Vegas. Both teams lost dinner service; he and Nick were the only two from the blue team who were not nominated. Episode 10 During the Blind Taste Challenge, Benjamin scored 3 out of 4 to give the blue team another easy challenge victory. During dinner service, the blue team was cooking for Shane's Inspiration. Benjamin proved to be a good leader on the Beef filet Rossini course. Episode 11 During the Pasta Budget Challenge, Benjamin's lobster pasta scored a blue team-high 90 points, but needed 98 to win for the blue team due to Milly putting the team in a hole. During dinner service, Benjamin was on garnish and had communication trouble with Robyn on meat. Robyn was incessantly asking for time on garnish and getting orders wrong, and Benjamin just wanted her to be quiet and not distract him. When Robyn asks once too many, he tells her to shut up. Despite the impasse, the blue team wins service. Episode 12 During the Taste It, Now Make It challenge, Benjamin got 4 out of 5 ingredients correct in the hash, but he lost a tiebreaker to Nick because he burned his sea bass slightly. Nevertheless, his filet mignon earned him the fourth black jacket in the Five Domes challenge. Episode 13 During the star cooking challenge, he and Shawne Merriman were judged last. They needed to beat Michelle to win, but they could not, so Benjamin had to go through the punishment of deep cleaning the kitchen and carpets. During service, Benjamin was on the meat station. He didn't have anything sent back, but on multiple occasions he failed to respond with an ETA when Ramsay read out the tickets. When Ramsay prodded him more aggressively, he constantly responded "Oui Chef!", which irritated everyone else. Michelle was named Best of the Worst for the service and Benjamin was unable to convince her that his communication was not a problem, but she ultimately decided not to nominate him. Episode 14 Benjamin's salmon dish won a tiebreaker over Michelle's venison dish in the cooking challenge. He realized that every guest judge (and Ramsay) voted for his dish, except for his wife, Rosanna. Ramsay took Benjamin in his Ferrari to a mountain resort, where Benjamin got to have lunch with his wife and two daughters. Benjamin ran the pass first during dinner service. He caught Sous Chef Christina preparing a carbonara with spaghetti instead of fettuccine, and sent back Milly's undercooked lobster. But he missed a risotto that had carrots instead of butternut squash. He did not have any issues after returning to his station, other than an under-salted carbonara when Milly was running the pass. Ramsay named him the second finalist, before Michelle and after Nick. Episode 15/16 After being named the second finalist, Benjamin and Michelle took turns drafting a brigade from their previously eliminated teammates. He picked Jennifer, Van, and Robyn, and was left with Barbie. The blue team got off to a strong start on appetizers, but ran into trouble on entrees. Jennifer sent up raw bass twice, while Robyn's repeated blunders on meat (raw filet, burnt filet, raw lamb, sauteing beef and lamb in the same pan) prompted Ramsay to eject her from the kitchen when Benjamin was slow to intervene. As Robyn begged and pleaded to be let back in, Ramsay challenged Benjamin to take matters in his own hands; Benjamin decided to allow Robyn to help finish the last ticket. Afterwards, Benjamin congratulated Michelle on her victory. Trivia Season 7 Season 17 *He is the only contestant of the season who had never previously met any of the other contestants. *He participated in the eighth different-gender finals of Hell's Kitchen, and the first ever All-Star finals. *He is the seventeenth runner-up, and tenth male runner-up of Hell's Kitchen. *He is the third contestant, and second male, who participated in two different seasons and made it to the finals on his second appearance, following Jason from Season 12, and Michelle also from Season 17. *He is the fourth runner-up, and third male runner-up, who completely avoided nomination throughout the entire season, following Jay from Season 7, Will from Season 9, and T from Season 14. *He is one of five contestants who made it to the black jackets in two different seasons. *He is the only All-Star contestant who made it to the black jackets after scoring a perfect five at the Signature Dish Challenge. *He is the fifth contestant who made it further in the competition on his second run, following Jason from Season 12, Robyn, Nick, and Michelle, also from Season 17. Quotes Season 7 *"I'm not a big fan of serving rice in restaurants because it's like poor food." *"The dish that we did was a beautiful dish. The pork was fucking gorgeous." *"Oui, Chef!" Season 17 *"Oui, Chef!" *"Robyn, it's really simple. Go fuck yourself. No, seriously, go fuck yourself!" Gallery Benjamin All Star.jpg|Benjamin on Season 17 (All-Stars) Category:Chef Category:Season 7 Category:All-Stars Category:Main Antagonists Category:Assholes Category:Douchebags Category:Black Jacket Category:Runner Up